Changes to Scholarship@SJU

May 3, 2018

Changes to Scholarship@SJU

For many years the Library has been compiling a bibliography of all scholarly output from SJU faculty. In 2012 this bibliography was moved into the ‘Scholarship@SJU’ platform. This platform utilizes Digital Commons Bepress (The Berkeley Electronic Press), a cloud-based repository meant to provide a wider audience to scholarly works.

While the Library has migrated bibliographic citations into Digital Commons, only a small fraction of those are available in full-text, while an ever-increasing number are available via the Library’s subscription databases. After a review of usage statistics, the Library has determined that our subscription is not the best use of our resources. Over the summer we plan to export data from the platform and look for more cost-effective ways to make this data available, possibly in collaboration with other efforts on campus.

The Library will continue to explore the best way to celebrate faculty and students’ scholarship. With similar platforms such as ResearchGate, Google Scholar, or discipline specific repositories such as PsyArXiv, Arxiv, and many others, we are questioning the need to duplicate similar information in our own repository. We will continue to keep an archive of faculty scholarship, but we need to find a cost-effective platform to present this information.

FAQs

Why are you moving from Digital Commons/Scholarship@SJU?The expense of Digital Commons does not match the usage statistics of the repository. We’re also questioning how much of a repository is needed if there are other tools that already provide that service.

When will access to Digital Commons end?July 1, 2018

Where will all of the information from Scholarship@SJU go?We will migrate the citation information from Digital Commons to another format. The Library will retain all of the information and is already in discussions with IT about a suitable platform for the information.

What will be the replacement for Scholarship@SJU?There will be a new Scholarship@SJU, but we need to talk with faculty and IT to determine the right tool. We hope to have some options by Spring 2019.
During that time, we will continue to collect faculty scholarship and preserve all previous submissions.